Police
Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested 32 suspects and recovered 10 firearms, ₦2.5 million in stolen cash, and 43 vehicles during various anti-crime operations across the state in September.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Tijani, disclosed the achievements on Monday during a press briefing at the Command Headquarters in Ikeja.
CP Tijani revealed that the 43 vehicles were impounded during an early-morning enforcement drive on Monday targeting unregistered vehicles and those with covered number plates. Verification and background checks on the impounded vehicles remain ongoing.
According to the police chief, the 32 suspects were apprehended for offenses spanning armed robbery, cultism, unlawful possession of firearms, burglary, stealing, and public disturbance.
In total, police recovered 10 firearms, comprising five pump-action guns and five locally made pistols alongside 20 live rounds of ammunition and cartridges, 15 expended shells, two cutlasses, criminal charms, and other incriminating exhibits.
Highlighting specific operational breakthroughs, Tijani noted that a 32-year-old suspect was intercepted during a routine patrol along Oko Oba Road after a group of fleeing hoodlums raised suspicion. A search yielded a locally made cut-to-size pistol, an engine block, a car radiator, a jack, and auto spare parts.
In another operation, a 29-year-old armed robbery suspect was tracked to the Toll Gate along the Lagos-Ogun boundary and arrested on September 26.
He was implicated in an armed robbery at Ghost and Spirit Lounge on Ekoro Road, Abule Egba, where a victim was stripped of a gold wrist chain and rings. Efforts are underway to apprehend his fleeing accomplices.
Police also dismantled a cross-city theft syndicate operating between Mushin and Lekki-Ajah. Operatives tracked a suspect to a hotel room in Idi-Oro, Mushin, recovering ₦2.5 million in cash and three mobile phones.
Follow-up operations in Idi-Oro led to the arrest of three additional robbery suspects and the recovery of a pump-action gun with 11 live cartridges in Igbogbo, Ikorodu.
Further anti-cultism sweeps in Olorunsogo, Mushin, yielded a locally made Beretta pistol and four 9mm live rounds from an admitted member of the Eiye Confraternity.
Similar operations at Ganyigbo Beach Yard and Imeke, Badagry, resulted in the arrest of 14 alleged Eiye cultists, alongside the recovery of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle, vehicle keys, a cut-to-size gun, and charms.
Seven of those suspects have already been formally charged to court.
In a notable interception at Capa, Oshodi, police arrested a 15-year-old alleged arms courier who attempted to conceal a fabricated Beretta pistol, four rounds of 9mm ammunition, and a single-barrel cut-to-size gun inside a hollowed loaf of bread.
A subsequent investigation led officers to recover an additional cut-to-size gun and 11 cartridges tied to the network.
Other arrests included a 53-year-old man caught with a locally made pistol in Ojo, six suspected hoodlums involved in property destruction along the Ejigbo–Idimu Road, and an armed suspect linked to public disturbance cases in Badagry.
CP Tijani commended the officers for their operational successes and expressed appreciation to the public for providing timely, actionable intelligence.
He reaffirmed the command’s commitment to protecting law-abiding officers while ensuring strict internal accountability for any professional misconduct.
